Dalberto Michel, Ravel, Gaspard de la nuit

Sequence published on 12/2/21

Composer : Maurice Ravel

Year of composition : 1908

Artistic period : 20th century

Academy : Academy Oct 25 - Nov 1, 2020

Master(s) : Michel Dalberto

Student : Tingan Kuo

Instrument(s) played :

Piano

"This piece is all about water" Michel Dalberto

About the Piano class of Maurice Ravel's work on the Gaspard_de_la_nuit

Master class de Piano, Maurice Ravel | Gaspard_de_la_nuit

"The teacher listens to the pianist play two pieces from Gaspard de la Nuit, and a cycle of three pieces by Maurice Ravel. He remarks that these pieces are, without a doubt, very difficult pieces that tread on water.
The master warns about problems in the tempo, and tells the pianist that she is playing too rubato, and also suggests “not to get nervous or exited,"" because the sound must be soft and expressive.
"

Later, Michel Dalberto makes various indications related to the use of the pedal, interpretation of accents, and dynamics.

What we learn in this Piano Master class

-This pieces are all about water
-It must be soft and expressive
-In some moments, it shouldn't be able to tell the difference between right and left hand

About Maurice Ravel work

"Maurice Ravel describes these pieces as “three romantic poems of transcendental virtuosity,” in which he had deliberately set out to surpass even Mily Balakirev’s notorious Islamey in terms of sheer technical difficulty. The first movement, Ondine, evokes the shimmering splashes and flowing current of water. In Bertrand’s poem, a beautiful water nymph attempts to seduce a man. When he rejects her, explaining that he is married to a mortal, the nymph “dissolves in tears and laughter,” and evaporates like a fleeting dream. Throughout this movement, I can’t help but hear echoes of the haunting theme from the final movement of Claude Debussy’s La Mer, completed three years earlier in 1905, which begins with a longing minor second, followed by an interval of a major second. "

"The second movement, Le Gibet, relates to the image of the solitary corpse of a hanged man on a gibbet in the middle of a desolate desert landscape. A reddish, setting sun descends on the horizon. The tolling bells of a distant walled city can be heard in the haunting persistence of a B-flat ostinato. Time seems to stand still. This is music filled with mystery and lament. Harmonically, there are some fascinating hints of jazz. The final movement, Scarbo, erupts with demonic virtuosity. We hear the influence of Franz Liszt’s Transcendental Études. Maurice Ravel clearly wanted to push the piano to its technical limits, as Franz Liszt had, even admitting that he attempted to exceed the technicality of the Russian composer Mily Balakirev’s treacherous “Oriental Fantasy,” Islamey. Describing the movement’s Lisztian bravura, Maurice Ravel said, “I wanted to make a caricature of romanticism. Perhaps it got the better of me.” The poem depicts a mischievous goblin who appears in the dead of night and plays terrifying tricks on the mind of the narrator as he lies in bed. "